


Task 12

by Sashataakheru



Series: TM Greg/Alex Lockdown 2020 Fics [3]
Category: Taskmaster (UK TV) RPF
Genre: #hometasking, Aftercare, Alex fucked up, Alex's dog bed, Apologies, Begging, Caning, Collars, Cuddles, D/s, Daddy/boi, Devotion, Disobedience, Emotions omg, Forgiveness, Guilt, Hand Worship, Kneeling, Lockdown Fic, M/M, Punishment, Scolding, Submission, Time Out, Verbal Humiliation, crawling, foot worship, lockdown D/s, sort of social distancing, stress positions, submissive postures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:47:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23930317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sashataakheru/pseuds/Sashataakheru
Summary: Alex knew as soon as he'd messed up and posted the wrong task to both twitter and youtube that Greg would never let a mistake that bad go unpunished.
Relationships: Greg Davies/Alex Horne
Series: TM Greg/Alex Lockdown 2020 Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020064
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	Task 12

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously I've been keeping up with #hometasking. Obviously. And, well, Greg said he was going to punish Alex for fucking up on Monday and posting the wrong task, so here we are... XD 
> 
> (in my defence, [if Alex is gonna keep being this publicly keen about being punished](https://twitter.com/AlexHorne/status/1254684211363155970?s=20), I am gonna keep feeling validated in headcanoning him as a fucking masochist.)

Alex knelt in front of Greg's door late Friday night, glad that at least lockdown meant no one was going to be around to see him kneeling. Not that he would have minded being seen. He did, after all, _like_ being seen. But his head wasn't in the space to think about that. His head was in punishment mode. He'd been summoned for that purpose, to be fair. This was exacerbated and marked - literally - by the collar around his neck that Greg made him wear when he was being punished. It was a thick black leather collar with four cross-quartered O-rings, and little studs on the inside that dug into his neck, not enough to draw blood, but just enough to remind him of his place. 

He knocked as Greg had taught him to knock, and stared resolutely at the floor, his hands folded gently in his lap. He was in his Taskmaster outfit, of course. Greg was quite strict about these things. He'd even bothered to polish his shoes, just so he looked immaculate, because Greg also cared about all those little details that Alex was so very good at managing. 

He guessed that Greg kept him waiting for perhaps five minutes before he opened the door and Alex found himself staring at his master's shoes. Without being asked, Alex bent over and kissed his feet reverently before Greg kicked him away. 

"Well, at least you're on time for once. Get in," Greg said, his anger clearly audible. He'd posted the video ending task 13 late as well, and Greg was also not happy about that. 

"Yes, sir," Alex murmured. He waited for Greg to open the door to him, then he crawled inside, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him and his head bowed. 

"Move it, you little shit," Greg said, whacking the back of his thigh with a cane, which told Alex precisely what his punishment was going to be. Not that he'd needed the confirmation. Caning was always how he was punished. That's how Greg was.

Alex crawled a little faster, doing his best to maintain the posture Greg had taught him to use. He didn't need to be told where to go. He went straight to Greg's bedroom, where he knelt in place under the window, forehead resting on the floor, with his palms facing upwards on either side of his head. He could hear Greg's footsteps approaching. 

"Grovelling little shit. You had one job, Alex. One fucking job! And you fucked it up so badly I can't believe you didn't just come running to my door straight away. God, you're pathetic. Can't you do anything right?" Greg said.

Alex shook his head, refusing to look at him. He was only allowed to look at the floor during punishments, so that's what he was doing. He winced as the breath was knocked from him as Greg gently kicked his side, more of a correction than something meant to cause any real injury.

"No, no, you fucking cretin, use that filthy mouth of yours. I want to hear actual words!" Greg said. 

Alex swallowed, which made the studs in the collar dig into his throat. "I'm sorry, no, I can't do anything right, I just got too carried away with the proposal, I-"

Greg again kicked his ribs, this time a little harder. "I didn't say I wanted to hear your pathetic excuses, did I? Don't you go blaming those two lovely people for your fuck ups. This was your one responsibility, and you couldn't even manage that, could you?" Greg said.

Alex shook his head again. "No, I couldn't, sir, I didn't do my duty like I should have. I'm so sorry."

"God, you disgust me sometimes. Jesus Christ," Greg said. Alex could hear the disgust in his voice too. "Right. On the bed. Punishment position. And if you even for one moment cry or complain or utter even one single sound, I'll thrash you twice over, understood?" 

"Yes, sir, sorry, sir," Alex said.

Climbing onto the bed without looking anywhere other than down in front of him was a little tricky, but at least he could see what was in front of him. The dastardly thing was, just because Greg punished him on his bed didn't mean he would ever be comfortable. There was a wooden board there, with similar little studs on it to the ones under his collar, and he crawled over to it and accepted the extra pain as he knelt in place, reaching a hand down to unfasten his belt and drop his trousers without lifting his gaze from the board in front of him. 

Greg, however, did not seem to have the patience for it this time, and yanked them down after watching Alex fumble with them for a minute. Alex did his best not to flinch as Greg slapped his cheeks a couple of times, settling into position on his knees and his forearms, a position meant to lift his butt into the air so Greg could punish him easily.

"Jesus Christ, the amount of time I have to spend correcting your less than stellar performance, Alex. I really do have better things to do than constantly baby you," Greg said. "At least I can punish you with a cane and not break social distancing rules, because I really don't want to be close to you right now. You digust me."

Alex discovered immediately that Greg was just going to begin caning him rather than give him any warning, and braced himself hard against the board as the first blow struck. 

"One, thank you, sir," Alex said automatically, hiding how much the pain was flaring through his body. Greg only held back enough so that he wasn't breaking the skin. Which still left a lot of room for pain that Alex absolutely hated. 

He did his best to focus and count and not lose himself to deep subspace, even though it was very inviting. He wasn't here for that. He was here because he'd fucked up again, and Greg was punishing him, as he had every right to do. 

Greg didn't stop until he got to twelve, six on each cheek, by which time Alex was exhausted and trying to hold back the tears. Greg had at least been merciful and not drawn them out, so it was over quickly, but that just left the shock searing through him like lightning, and his body felt stiff from kneeling in place on the studs. 

"Dog bed. One hour," was all Greg said. 

"Yes, sir," Alex said as he forced his body to move. 

He was dimly aware of Greg's retreating footsteps but mostly he was concerned about making his way off the bed to his own little dog bed, crammed into a corner of Greg's bedroom where he could keep an eye on him. He didn't bother dressing, because Greg hadn't told him to. This did make it more difficult to move, but going slowly, he did manage to drag himself over to his bed and curled up, finally letting himself cry as quietly as he could manage. 

The pain flared angrily for a while, which didn't help him relax. He'd been scolding himself all week for his mistakes, and apologising over and over again to anyone and everyone, but only one person was going to punish him for it, and that person was Greg. 

Serves him right for trying to be organised. And for letting himself get carried away with the proposal. He'd even been honest about that too! He'd just got overexcited and messed things up. But that didn't matter to Greg. A fuck up was a fuck up, after all. 

Oh, it was going to be _so long_ before Greg came to get him. This would be the longest hour all week, where he could do nothing except wallow in his mistakes and try to work out how to be better next time. So many people were relying on him to get this right, and he didn't want to let them down. This felt so much bigger than his usual fuck ups, where all he'd done was perhaps let Greg down. 

If he'd been feeling brave, he might have tried to gently rub his cheeks and try to deal with the pain, but he had a feeling Greg wouldn't approve of that today, so he left his bare skin open to the air while he rested his head on his hands, doing his best not to give in and nap, even though he really wanted to. 

He lowered his gaze, making sure he was only looking at the floor. A part of him hated how familiar this pain was. That he'd been punished with the cane so many times, the pain was the least worst part. What he did to himself was always worse than the cane. But that was the point. He'd had all week to punish himself, and he had, endlessly. Greg's punishment served only to act as a fullstop to everything. So he could stop feeling guilty and move on. 

Moving on was always hard though. Alex was anxious enough to feel guilty for even the tiniest of transgressions, so eager was he to be the good obedient boy Greg expected him to be. Even now, he had a moment of panic about whether these were even the right thoughts he should be having. Because Greg would know if he'd been thinking about the wrong things, wouldn't he? He would, because Alex would tell him. 

Greg had never offered much guidance for time out, if Alex was being honest. "Stay there and think about what you've done" did sort of work, but then what? What was he meant to think about once he'd got that out of the way? How to be better? Was that the implication? He felt it was, but Greg had never clarified this, so he would simply run over how to fix the mistake, make a note of it for next time, and then move on, unsure what to do after that. 

Of course, he felt awful. The guilt and the sadness and the pain and the disappointment gnawed at his heart. Disobedience always made him feel bad. But he was sure he was meant to do _something else_ with those feelings. Right? His usual tactic of lying to himself - and to others - and obfuscating the guilt away was verboten with Greg. Alex was suddenly being made to _sit with his guilt_ for as long as Greg liked, and Alex really didn't like that. That wasn't how he made up for doing the wrong thing. All it did was make emotions swim through his body that he didn't really know what to do with, along with a flood of anxiety as he waited for Greg to tell him he was forgiven. 

To be fair, Alex was sure that was why Greg used this particular punishment method with him. It _hurt_ in a way physical pain didn't. It didn't go away as easily. There was no worse pain than disappointing someone you love, and Alex never liked hurting people if he could help it. 

He'd shifted his position several times now, trying to get comfortable. All this did was make the pain worse, because his skin was now hyper-sensitive. He was lying awkwardly on his trousers too, unwilling to simply reach down and shift his keys out of the way so they weren't pressing into his leg. Every instinct was telling him to move, but his brain just interpreted it as part of his punishment, so he put up with it, biting into the soft ledge of the dog bed in a bid to deal with the pain. 

By the time Greg finally returned, his mood now much improved, Alex was on the verge of tears, desperately wanting to get up, or at the very least, take his keys out of his trousers. Greg sat before him, smiling, reaching down to stroke his head gently. 

"Please. Please, Greg. Hurts- I can't. Please," Alex begged, unsure how much more of this he could take. 

"Learned your lesson then, have you, boy?" Greg said, his voice now warm and full of love for him. 

Alex nodded desperately. "Please, please, sir, I'll be good, I promise, please, hurts so much, sir."

"Alright, come here, I'd better patch you up or your Mistress will be doing the same to me," Greg said, gathering Alex up into his arms. 

Alex clung to him, his body going limp now that he was going to get the pain relief he needed. Greg shifted him to the bed, drawing his trousers and pants down a little further so he could treat his marks. Alex hissed as Greg ran a finger gently over one of his cheeks. 

"Still tender, hey?" Greg said.

Alex nodded. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, sir, please forgive me..."

Alex quietly babbled on, in no fit state to really do much more as Greg began treating and teasing out the pain, and rubbing down his stiff muscles. The attention was wanted, but just made the pain flare, and Alex loved it and hated it at the same time. He'd be okay once he got home, of course, and he'd look at those marks all week, and remember how badly he'd fucked up. But right now, things were still very raw.

"There you go, you're done," Greg said as he finished dressing him. 

Alex turned around and slowly sat up, and as he faced Greg, head still bowed and gaze averted, he reached for Greg's hands and kissed them one by one. 

"Thank you for punishing me, sir. I will do better next time," Alex murmured into each hand.

Greg pulled him into a hug, rubbing his back gently. "I know you will. You just got a little excited and forgot what you should have been doing. Just don't let it happen again, alright?" 

"I won't, sir, I promise," Alex said, and he absolutely meant it. 


End file.
